AP News, January 30th, 2008
E-mail messages between the Hawaii governor's former top aide and a man who was blackmailing him cannot be publicly released, a federal judge ruled.
Gov. Linda Lingle's former chief of staff, Bob Awana, has a right to privacy because he was the blackmail victim, U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright said in ruling against The Associated Press' effort to view the e-mails.
"The public interest lies in treating a crime victim with fairness and with respect to privacy," Seabright wrote in his order, dated Monday.
Awana was blackmailed for $35,000 over a relationship with a woman and resigned in June when the case came to light. He has not been charged with a crime.
Public defender Pamela Byrne has said he arranged for women in the Philippines to go on dates with him and businessmen from Hawaii in exchange for favors including money and trips.
The blackmailer, Rajdatta Patkar, a citizen of India, pleaded guilty to extortion.
The AP had asked Judge Seabright to remove a gag order on the e-mails to help verify whether the case involved official government misconduct on state trips to the Philippines in 2005 or 2006.
Without the e-mails, the public may never know whether Awana was working in his capacity as a government employee during his affairs in the Philippines, said Jeff Portnoy, whose firm handled the AP's legal action.
"The fact that Bob Awana resigned seems to indicate that there may be more fire where there's smoke," he said.
Lingle, a Republican, has said Awana's actions in the Philippines were a personal matter that had nothing to do with his official state trips there.
Neither Byrne nor federal prosecutor Clare Connors returned phone calls seeking comment.
